BMC schools might not become a part of Maharashtra international education board

Schools under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have still not sent their consent letters to become a part of the Maharashtra State International Board (MIEB). The civic body had opposed the participation of 76 civic schools after the MIEB declared that they would have to pay fees for the affiliation and accreditation.

As per the current structure, a BMC school, to become part of the MIEB, would have to pay ₹20,000 as affiliation fee, ₹10,000 for annual accreditation and ₹25,000 per teacher for training. In a letter sent to the state education department in February, the BMC had requested for a waiver of fees for affiliation and accreditation. BMC, however, has still not heard from the board. “We have not received a response from the officials yet,” said Mahesh Palkar, education officer, BMC.

Officials at MIEB said that the board has so far not considered waiving off the fees for municipal corporations. “Municipal councils are not charged as they do not have a sufficient budget. Corporations have allocation for such upgrades and thus a basic fee is levied,” said an official.

The MIEB was set up to provide a curriculum on a par with international curricula and make students more competitive. Around 100 schools are set to begin operation under the board from this academic year.

In the first year, the medium of instruction at all the selected schools under the board would be Marathi and selected schools would be first allowed to run pre-primary to Class 3 in this phase. While 455 schools from the state had applied to become a part of the board, only 80 of these had sent out their consent letters for the same.